Amazing_Grace

We didn't trade anyone to get him. We have only 39 on our 40 man roster so no one has to be moved off the 40 man roster to make room. He is unlikely to take any playing time away from Geovany Soto. The Cardinals fans are annoyed by this signing and they will get really pissed if he hits a HR against them. At least the Cubs fans will be able to boo someone who actually deserves it. John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama for President on the same day that Jim Edmonds signed with the Cubs.. that has to count for something eh. No animals were harmed in the course of signing Jim Edmonds to play baseball for the Chicago Cubs. That's all I got.

The odds were greatly against Soriano hitting .180 all season. I'm not surprised he's turning it around. That said, his contract still stinks and I'd still rather have signed Carlos Lee.

I've always been in the camp that says if you have to accept crappy production out of a position, you may as well get it from someone young that may get better as opposed to someone old who will likely get worse. This is yet another sobering reminder that our GM is, in fact, an idiot whose (limited) success is mostly due to the fact that he has the sixth highest payroll in MLB to buy him out of all his mistakes. If you're going to try to upgrade CF, then trade for someone that doesn't suck, or move Kosuke to CF and trade for a RF that doesn't suck. What a completely and utterly Cub-like move this is. Well, on the not bright but not quite as soul crushingly dark side, this costs basically nothing, and in the extraordinarily improbable event Edmonds puts up numbers closer to what he did 3 or 4 years ago than what he's put up the last 2, the Cubs will have gotten a good LH CF for basically nothing that we are under no obligation to pay beyond this season. What seems more likely is that he'll suck for two months and the Cubs will overpay in trade for some passable OF, more than likely a RF. If I were Kosuke, i'd be practicing taking fly balls in CF.. a lot.

HUSH YOU!!! I've had enough of your facts and theories. [-(

If he doesn't come out hitting, Cubs fans will be on him, like Kirstie Alley on a cupcake. He'll get the Jacques Jones treatment. So, my advice for Jim Edmonds will be to hit, hit, hit till the end of October. But like many, I have low expectations for Edmonds, and it wouldn't surprise me if he isn't released by the end of May. But I find this statement interesting: This doesn't surprise me at all. I think the Cubs brass are remembering the CPatt situation and what a nightmare it was. I think that based on the similarities of the two (struggling early, no plate discipline), they have concluded that Pie won't develop fast enough to be useful to them this season and intend to deal him at the deadline, probably for a SP. They figure if Edmonds works out great, and if not, we'll go after a RF at the deadline and move Kosuke to CF. As for Kosuke being willing to move positions, that doesn't surprise me. The Japanese players have always seemed to be more willing to put the good of the team above their own.

Seconded

untrue. i agree with most of this. lou does a relatively good job as far as overall philosophy, but his in-game decisions are bad. he also needs to remember that the season is 162 games long, and you want your guys to not be completely out of gas in october. As to the first part, I was thinking of Bobby Hill, Hee Seop Choi, Brendan Harris, Jason Dubois, etc. that either never got a decent shot or were benched permanently for no apparent reason. As I think about it more, you're probably right. He went with CPat long after it was apparent to most everyone that he would never be much more than your run of the mill swings at everything but doesn't hit enough HR to justify it hitter. Cedeno did get most of 2006 despite Neifi being on the roster. Marshall and Hill got good shots then also. 2006 is hard to judge though, since he was a lame duck manager and Hendry basically gave him no choice when he started trading everyone for beans at the deadline. As for the rest, I think his in-game decisions do look pretty bad when you consider their affect over an entire season. I wonder why Theriot isn't getting more days off after wearing down badly late last season. The bullpen usage is completely bewildering to me, but in my mind it's not that much worse than Baker using the veteran with the 6.00 ERA in every big game.

I think a lot of the criticism of Piniella is over the top and unjustified. A lot of people are really angry about the Pie situation, but I guarantee you probably 80% of big league managers would do the same thing in his position (that being on a 110M dollar budget team expected to win in the NL). A lot of people are upset about the Rich Hill situation, but he walked 18 in 19 innings. That's obviously not gonna fly, and working out control problems in AAA is no more difficult, and probably easier, than doing so in the majors. With Hill, Lou had the option to send him down. He might well like to send other guys down, but he doesn't have that option because of ML rules. Saying Lou is as bad or worse than Dusty is plain ludicrous. Lou doesn't abuse his starters like Dusty did. I think part of the reason Z has started so well this year is because last year was the first in his career when he wasn't absolutely ridden into the ground by Baker. Lou doesn't play Jacque Jones all year because of his contract or who he is. He benches guys that struggle because he wants production out of his lineup. Sometimes that means rookies get benched for guys that arguably shouldn't even be on the roster. Other times it means benching a guy making quite a bit of money to give a young player a shot, as he did last year with Theriot and Fontenot (he also benched them when they struggled, he certainly doesn't appear to me to play favorites). He also benched Jones to give Pie a shot on more than one occasion. Pie played terribly. 117 ABs obviously isn't a huge amount, but it's a damn lot more than most young players got during Baker's tenure. Let's be realistic, nobody is going to agree with every call the manager makes. We can always find fault in hindsight. The only things that I really don't like about Lou are that he overuses a few guys in his bullpen, especially using the best players in non critical situations, and the fact that he runs too much in general but especially in front of Lee and Ramirez. All in all, I'm satisfied with Lou, a lot more than I thought I would be when he was hired. You don't reverse a several year trend of being among the worst teams in baseball in OBP and patience to one of the best by complete accident. To those who are wondering if they'd rather have Baker back, I invite you to follow the Reds for a couple weeks and see what you think.

Why would the now unemployed Jim Edmonds be any better than the still unemployed Kenny Lofton. Not that I want either of them (I don't, I'd rather trade for someone that actually doesn't suck and is less than 35 years old), but really, if we were going to sign an over the hill star hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, wouldn't we have already done so? Seriously, if we're going to play a guy in CF who can't get their OPS above .750, we may as well play Pie because he plays better defense than any of the others or give Cedeno a try because he's the most likely to actually do anything offensively.

The rest of this season will be pretty interesting for more reasons than one.

Every time he's been moved to leadoff he starts hitting poorly. Leave him where he is and move Kosuke to leadoff.

I would hope if we're going to the trouble of moving Fukudome to CF then we'd be acquiring someone younger and better than Griffey. Ten years ago, Griffey was one of the best players in baseball. Now he's overpaid and decidedly average. It wouldn't be the worst move the Cubs have ever made, but I just don't see it making a huge difference since the offensive upgrade would be marginal over the Johnson/Pie platoon and that would be offset by a substantial downgrade in defense. Only way I'd do this is if there were no other choice at the trade deadline and we didn't have to give up much to get him.

The Cubs are in "win now" mode. They aren't going to have a guy hitting .220 in the lineup no matter how good he projects to be in the future. Let's not kid ourselves. For every prospect that becomes good, there are 2 or 3 that bust. You take a risk either way. We've criticized Jim often enough for waiting too long to trade a guy. Everyone was peeved that the Cubs "gave up" on Hee-Seop Choi, but we sold high, and now have Derrek Lee, and that was a good move.

If we're going to trade Pie (and it certainly looks like we'll be doing that), what makes the most sense is to trade for a RF and move Fukudome to CF. That way the only guy playing out of position is the one who actually plays good defense to begin with, and won't pout about having to move positions. A RF is a lot easier to find than a CF or SS, and if you're going to settle for subpar defense somewhere, you may as well make the move that allows you to get the best player period, and then figure out who plays where. Edit: And does anyone else wish we'd gone after Carlos Lee instead of Soriano after 2006. I preferred Lee to begin with myself.

If Zell is greedy enough to sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field and anger millions of Americans and his own customers, I have little doubt that he's greedy enough to tell the MLB owners "go to heck I'm getting every penny I can even if I have to sell the damn team to Satan". If Cuban offers to pay more than anyone else, he'll end up owning the team, and unless MLB wants a long expensive embarrassing battle in court to keep Cuban out, they'll bite their tongues and approve the sale. On the other hand, I wouldn't put it past Selig or Reinsdorf to find some people that could help Canning or whoever else come up with a better bid.

Yeah, if you're interested in winning this crappy division with 86 wins and then getting destroyed in the playoffs. If our rotation is struggling, then how about instead of trading for a second baseman, we trade for a pitcher? Is that such a radical idea? It would depend on who is available and at what cost. There have been plenty of "ok but not great" starting rotations that won WS because of great offenses. The Yankees rotation was never as good as the Braves and they won a lot more championships. If the Cubs had a rotation of Z, Lieber, Lilly, Marquis, and Dempster, that's not great, but it's not horrible either. There are also plenty of in-house options if one of those guys flames out. Marshall could be moved to the rotation. Gallagher could be called up. Marmol could probably be stretched out to start. If I'm Hendry, I look at my team and I see we could go either way, trying to become an offensive powerhouse with a mediocre rotation or a team with an above average offense and rotation. I prefer the latter, but if I can get the former at a lower cost than the latter, well, then I have to weigh how much more chance I have to reach the playoffs with the two options. In any event, I'd rather have one than neither. It's a long way yet to the trade deadline and plenty can happen between now and then. Theriot isn't going to hit .320 all year and Dempster isn't going to have a 3.16 ERA all year. I just think that the move ought to be send Hill to AAA before he loses all value and see what happens with the team for 2 months, then make a decision at that point whether to trade and for what.

I have to wonder if the Hill situation is turning any gears in Hendry's mind yet. Hill was the guy the O's initially wanted for Roberts. If he isn't going to start, he becomes very interesting as trade bait. I think the Cubs are one more bat from being a top 5 offense (maybe that's Roberts, maybe it's someone else), and if that's the case, I think we can probably live with Zambrano and bunch of 3 and 4 starters. I think you put Lieber in the rotation. It probably isn't a long-term solution, but it will get us through the next couple months until the trade deadline, then we see whether we can trade for another starter, or whether it's more cost effective to go after offense. In the meantime, you send Hill to AAA to work out his control problems with the option of either trading a starter and bringing Hill to the rotation, or trading Hill, depending on what happens between now and then.

The right thing to do would be to bat Fukudome leadoff. His numbers with high OBP, lots of doubles, good speed, suggest he'd be an ideal leadoff man. This is an absolute no-brainer in my book. Aramis is not the kind of free swinging slugger that needs someone good behind him. Soriano is that kind of hitter. I think the best lineup we could put out there would be Fukudome Soriano Lee Ramirez DeRosa Soto Theriot/Johnson Theriot/Cedeno/Pie P

This makes me think of one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein "there are two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Stupid people deserve to be laughed and pointed at. That's the most effective way to get them to stop being stupid. Kudos to the press for putting these dips up for public humiliation.

The problem is and was that there simply are no realistic options for upgrading SS. Who are we going to trade for that is going to produce at a level that would allow us to put an automatic out in the lineup for two plus months. I'm leaning toward trading Pie. He's the type of player that is hard for a contending team to break in because, as has been stated over and over, he is the type of player that is going to struggle for several months at least before he starts producing. If he's not going to be given the chance, he needs to be traded NOW, while he still has value. The Cubs gain nothing putting him on the bench and he's already destroyed AAA so there's no point in sending him down. How do you know there are no realistic options to upgrade at SS? The Cubs have shown zero indication of even attempting to do so or think about doing it...we have no idea what teams are willing to deal. That said, as much as I would rather see a better SS brought in, Theriot is producing at the moment, which makes it even dumber that the Cubs don't play Pie as much as possible. This team CAN afford to have one slot used mostly to help a promising young players exactly because they are a contending team. I don't know that there weren't, but you don't know that there were either. Maybe the Cubs made an offer for Tejada and the O's simply didn't like it as much as Houston's. Maybe they were quietly looking until Jan. and then turned to Roberts after they gave up on that. Anyway the point is moot, because the offseason has come and gone. The Cubs were either unwilling or unable upgrade SS at that time. Who do you see that's realistically available or is likely to be by midseason that would provide a substantial upgrade over Theriot/Cedeno? I agree that this is the position where the Cubs most need an offensive upgrade. I just don't see how they're going to acquire one.

The problem is and was that there simply are no realistic options for upgrading SS. Who are we going to trade for that is going to produce at a level that would allow us to put an automatic out in the lineup for two plus months. I'm leaning toward trading Pie. He's the type of player that is hard for a contending team to break in because, as has been stated over and over, he is the type of player that is going to struggle for several months at least before he starts producing. If he's not going to be given the chance, he needs to be traded NOW, while he still has value. The Cubs gain nothing putting him on the bench and he's already destroyed AAA so there's no point in sending him down.

Well, since Gammons said it, it's almost certain to not involve the players named. Gallagher AND another prospect for Crisp. I wouldn't trade Gallagher straight up for Crisp. The guy's highest career OBP over a full season is .345, with his highest OPS being .810. That isn't much better than having Theriot leadoff, and that's assuming he plays at his best. If we were going to settle for that, why not keep Jones around, who at least hits for more power while he's not getting on base. If the Cubs have decided not to ride it out with Pie, why not just sign Lofton, platoon him with Johnson, and give up nobody. Hell, Johnson isn't really that much of a CF anyway. If we're going to live with subpar defense in CF, then move Kosuke to CF, put DeRosa in RF, and offer the O's Pie in addition to whatever else the Roberts deal included.

Excellent post, this is exactly what I was thinking. The Cubs don't develop position players because they still are rating them based on "tools" instead of stats. Tools mean nothing in the major leagues if you can't put up the numbers. Also, thx Cusecubfan for answering my Borowski question.

There are pros and cons to it. On the pro side, there are fewer chances for your pitcher to get hurt, you don't have to wear down your bullpen as badly because you don't have to pinch hit all the time, you get a lot more versatility as far as getting the best hitters in the lineup, and finally, it's a lot easier to break in a position prospect that's likely to have an OBP somewhere around .290 his first season when you don't have a pitcher with an OBP of .210 hitting behind him. Also, as you said, it's easier to keep guys rested. On the cons side, it's not the way the game was always played. Some of the records set in the pre-DH era can't be compared to modern ones, there's a lot less strategy involved, it makes the manager have even less impact. There tends to be less running and basestealing with the DH, and finally, there are guys who spend most if not their entire career DHing who never would have been everyday players if they had to take the field every game (David Ortiz anyone). I think it's inevitable because sooner or later the owners will throw that particular bone at the player's union in order to get whatever small concession they can in the way of revenue sharing/salary cap/drug testing.

When Andy and Jim went about overhauling the organization in the mid 90's, they explicitly talked about focusing most of their developmental attention on pitchers, while trading for bats later. They thought that was the best way to emulate the Braves, ignoring how many quality position players that franchise developed. Quite frankly, I don't think any of us can really complain about the number of pitching prospects the Cubs have produced who have had some amount of success in the major leagues over the past ten years. Their plan worked. Off the top of my head, the following guys have pitched with varying degrees of success and exposure in the majors after spending some time in the Cubs' minor league system in the past ten years... Mark Prior Kerry Wood Carlos Zambrano Rich Hill Sean Marshall Jon Garland Carlos Marmol Dontrelle Willis Sergio Mitre Ricky Nolasco Renyel Pinto Carmen Pignatiello Michael Wuertz Ryan O'Malley John Koronka Todd Wellemeyer Will Ohman Andy Sisco Francis Beltran Sean Gallagher Juan Mateo That's just off the top of my head, to boot. Kyle Farnsworth and Michael Wuertz have had decent careers as relievers, and Juan Cruz had his moments. Was Borowski developed by the Cubs or traded for?